CNPC presses seismic work in Tenere, Niger

Feb. 10, 2005
A unit of China National Petroleum Corp. plans to acquire the full 1,500 line km of seismic data specified in the $55 million minimum work program on the 17.3 million acre Tenere Block in the Termit-Tenere rift basin in Niger.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 10 -- A unit of China National Petroleum Corp. plans to acquire the full 1,500 line km of seismic data specified in the $55 million minimum work program on the 17.3 million acre Tenere Block in the Termit-Tenere rift basin in Niger.

BGP Inc. acquired more than 288 km of data since acquisition began on Jan. 11. The program's goal is to identify and rank prospects for drilling under the minimum work program, which calls for 3 exploration wells.

CNPC and partner TG World Energy Corp., Calgary, have independently mapped 35 closed structures on the block, TG World said.

Early work involved an east-west line through the Fachi-1 well, drilled and logged in the 1970s on what was determined to be an uplifted ridge that separates two deep areas of the Tenere trough that TG World believes are the concession's most prospective sectors.

Permit interests are CNPC International (Tenere) Ltd. 80% and TG World 20%, mostly carried (OGJ Online, Aug. 31, 2004).

Elsewhere in Africa, CNPCI explores in Algeria and Sudan, where it is operator of several discoveries on Blocks 3 and 7 in the Melut basin and a participant in the Greater Nile Oil Project on Blocks 1, 2, and 4 in the Muglad basin.

Malaysia's Petronas Carigali reported that the Jaouro-1 exploration well on the adjacent Agadem Block 1 flowed 2,540 b/d of oil from 2,462 m (OGJ Online, Jan. 19, 2005).